Recent observations of the "anti-war"
protests, Hollywood's cynical small mindedness, the dubious conduct of former
Presidents and the unprecedented power politics being displayed by liberal Democrats
in Congress over the judicial nomination of Miguel Estrada have given me great
pause as of late. I find myself frequently re-assessing personally held assumptions
regarding the professed patriotism of liberals and I am frankly surprised by the
conclusions to which I am led and the resulting trepidation I feel. And, when
supplemented by the complicit nature of mainstream media coverage of these events
... well, it further contributes to my disdain.

Do liberals really
hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal? Do they support
a strong defense of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic?
and truly desire equal application and protection of individual, religious
and economic freedoms -promote free markets and limited government? Are the separation
of powers with uncorrupted checks and balances genuinely pursued to better guarantee
justice and equal treatment for all Americans? Does the left in any way subscribe
to the position that, as John Adams said: " Our Constitution was made
only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government
of any other." If so, why do they often seek to circumvent, distort, or otherwise
ignore the Constitution without reservation when it is politically advantageous
to do so? For it is the practical support and reverence given these founding principles,
the American vision laid out by our founding fathers, against which I assess one's
patriotism - and it appears appallingly transparent to me, that liberals have
a pattern of falling well short of this standard.

Now, liberals
will argue that their conduct is, in fact, patriotic -- that the open expression,
in whatever form, of dissenting beliefs is an act of patriotism. A Constitutionally
given right, yes an act of patriotism? no. I submit that the abuse and
exploitation of the rights afforded you by the American Constitution in and of
itself does not constitute patriotism. In America, you have the right to be unpatriotic.
You have a right to protest against the very freedoms and protections you benefit
from but it is not patriotism. Only through the incessant and mind
numbing circumnavigation of common sense oft employed by the left to justify their
behavior can the conclusion be reached that it is. Though, reason, fact and applied
common sense have always been the enemies of liberalism.

The left
has even now, during this time of probable war, begun to proclaim their distress
over Bush's Christian faith going so far as to imply that he may, in fact,
be manipulating history to self-fulfill the prophecy of Armageddon. The unmitigated
partisan insanity of these people is onerous. According to the abstruse rationale
of the left, our very founding fathers, with the beliefs they espoused and incorporated
to build this American ideal, are people to be feared, ostracized and regarded
with contempt and if they truly believe this, and I suggest they do, perhaps
it sheds some light on the reason liberals, in turn, have such expressed derision
for this country.

America is a nation, which both institutionally
and culturally, embodies the principles of its founders principles that
the left loathes. So, if these American values are so abhorred by the left, how
can they then harbor a love of country and support any endeavors that America
pursues under the banner of these ideals? The reality is they don't, and we see
the expression of this truth in the faces and placards found at the anti-American
"peace" protests, through aggressive attempts to limit speech and debate
that does not correspond to their own belief system, in the pursuit of restrictions
on religious expression, circumvention of the law and roguish political discourse.
These, my fellow Americans, are not the actions of patriots.

Is it
possible, also, that feelings of class envy, racism, sexism, this-ism, or that-ism,
now supercede the noble designs of our founding fathers, in the hearts and minds
of Liberals? Or perhaps their perfidious actions are driven by some blind allegiance
to the Democratic Party, and the liberal leadership finds it acceptable to reject
American ideals in order to exploit these feelings for political gain. Now, partisanship
is one thing, but when it graduates to partisan extremism and knowingly extends
beyond acceptable political protocol it, in effect, supersedes loyalty to country
and the interests of the American people for the sake of acquiring power
and it is wrong. Reflexive and blind opposition is not democratic. It is unjust,
un-American and yes, un-patriotic.

The true value placed upon our
Constitution by the liberal mindset can further be ascertained by recalling just
a few recent and characteristic realities: The ACLU aggressively seeks to suppress
the ability of Christians to openly gather and demonstrate by restricting equal
access to public areas that are otherwise permitted for non-Christian groups,
the political correctness movement's continues to suppress freedom of speech and
expression in the name of "tolerance", the Gore camp actively sought
to circumvent U.S. election laws during the 2000 Presidential election, Democrats
illegally switched Senate candidates in New Jersey during last year's Senate campaign,
The National Organization for Women (NOW), and partner groups, went to court to
restrict the first amendment rights of peaceful anti-abortion protesters by having
them treated as racketeers under the law and, more recently, liberal Senate Democrats
in unprecedented fashion, are obstructing President Bush's judicial nominees to
undemocratically retain power. Throw in a few United States flag burnings by "peace"
activists and mainstream media repudiation of pro-war demonstrations and I'd say
there exists a convincing case that the left suffers from a severe case of Patriotism
Deficit Disorder (PDD).

Arguably, the America envisioned by our founding
fathers is not the America the left holds allegiance to. Therefore, feigned self-righteous
indignation often expressed by our liberal countrymen (oh, and countrywomen countrypersons?)
when being accused of being unpatriotic is, perhaps, somewhat legitimate in that
they do hold allegiance to some notion of America albeit one that is difficult
to reasonably discern. And, yes there is, and will be, periodic, trite and usually
out of context, references to the founding principles of this nation to promote
positional legitimacy. However, to subscribe to modern liberal doctrine you must
necessarily ignore, misconstrue, or distort the original intent and founding principles
of this nation as outlined by our founding fathers. Objective discernment
of American historical fact, combined with reason and the full context of our
founding principles, will lead you to only one credible blueprint of American
political beliefs and today we call it "conservatism".

The
left may be loyal to a vision of America a socialist America, perhaps an
atheist America or both, but certainly not the American vision our founders have
laid out for us - Just look for yourself.

Gary Schneider is the President and founder of TheRealityCheck.Org,
Inc., a Conservative policy advocacy group established to promote and defend conservative
social, political and economic principles nationally, through the origination
and dissemination of commentary, analysis, news and research tools via the public
Internet and other channels. TheRealityCheck.Org, Inc. is located in Fairfield
County, CT. During his 14- year career, Schneider has traveled extensively to
Europe and throughout the United States. In addition to Politics and Finance,
his hobbies include fitness, mountain-biking and is actively involved in his Church.